Any Digital Impressions of the Caiman yet?

[MartinT]

I did wonder if it may be something to do with pre gap.

It's most likely the muting relays taking a hundred milliseconds or so to kick in. It shows up with some sources more than others depending on whether they send 'keep alive' digital silence or whether the music, as you say, has little pre gap.

[webby]

It's most likely the muting relays taking a hundred milliseconds or so to kick in. It shows up with some sources more than others depending on whether they send 'keep alive' digital silence or whether the music, as you say, has little pre gap.

I'll do some tests on it to see if I can narrow it down cos at the moment I'm getting inconsistent results.

[webby]

There has only been one glitch-whenever I put a new CD in my transport, there is no sound for about a second or less after it has started playing the disc, so it is disconcerting to realize that I’m missing that first little bit of music. Has anyone else reported this sort of problem-on the Caiman or 7510/20? It’s a minor annoyance, given how good the Caiman is at everything else, and any info on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

Bill

Hi Bill - I too have noticed this on my Caiman - I assumed it was a "feature" of the DAC, in that as far as I can tell it "goes to sleep" when it is not receiving a signal and "wakes up" when it gets one (apologies everyone for my use of technical jargon! ) Sure Stan can confirm or deny - but mine is defintely doing the same - I've got used to pressing play, then immediately pressing the back button once the sound comes on which obviously counters the problem.

When you start a CD, the Caiman internal clock locks on to the CD player clock in order to give a jitter free reproduction as possible. However, this locking process relies on reclocking and that has a certain amount of delay, which can vary with the transport that is feeding the DAC. That's why you get that fraction of a delay. If you skipped to track #2 and then back to track #1 you'll notice that initial loss of sound is not there anymore. It's only from start up of the CD.

Regards,

STan

I found some comments on this earlier in this thread. Is there any solution to this? Does it happen on any input? Skipping back to the start of the track, as Alex does, doesn't work for me.

Anyone?

[MartinT]

I've already answered this in post #651. The only workaround is to bypass the muting relays but you may experience glitches as the incoming datastream starts and stops.

[webby]

I've already answered this in post #651. The only workaround is to bypass the muting relays but you may experience glitches as the incoming datastream starts and stops.

To be fair Martin you said its most likely, not it is.

Anyway, how do I bypass these muting relays and why might it result in starts and stops? For the record, I would only ever be using one source so no source switching will be going on.

I find this 'bug' quite irksome.

[MartinT]

Muting relays are quite common in DAC and player designs. It could be that the ones used in Stan's design are a little tardy to un-mute. I get this now that I'm using the Caiman on my PC via S/PDIF - the very beginning of a note can be missed.

If you bypass the relays, you might get glitches as the stream comes in and stops. I'm not talking about source switching - even if you have a permanent connection to a single source, the datastream starts and stops as you play and stop media. As to how to bypass the relays, I don't know of any circuit diagrams in existence so you'll have to look at the front PCB and follow the tracks, or ask Stan.

[webby]

As an example, instead of hearing 'is this the real life, is this just fantasy' I hear 'the real life, is this just fantasy'.

[Werner Berghofer]

Lee,

instead of hearing 'is this the real life, is this just fantasy' I hear 'the real life, is this just fantasy'.

switch to pure instrumental music instead? ;-)

Seriously now, I have no idea how to work around this special behaviour of the Caiman. I really can’t remember anymore if this also happened in my setup, but without a doubt it would have annoyed me too.

My current DACs don’t miss a single note, not even at the beginning of a track. I certainly can hear a relay’s click, but after a few milliseconds playback begins with the very first bit of the audio signal.

Werner.

[webby]

This seems to only affect the 1st track of an album, which is why i think it's something to do with pre gap. If I play the last seconds of the previous track in my iTunes library then all is good.

Otherwise, restarting the track sometimes works but not always. I have found no regular pattern to this as yet.

[webby]

Lee,

My current DACs don’t miss a single note, not even at the beginning of a track. I certainly can hear a relay’s click, but after a few milliseconds playback begins with the very first bit of the audio signal.

Werner.

Werner,

I also rip using XLD. What settings do you use as far as pre gap is concerned?